The chaotic state of college football, with its sprawling portal windows and unregulated NIL landscape, has become so unrecognizable that prominent voices are calling for a drastic solution. It isn’t a shocking development, but stronger leadership could have prevented the chaos. That’s the backdrop for what Kirk Herbstreit said on February 5.

Some people feel that college football legislation is still stuck in the 1980s, treating it as a regional sport. At least that’s what Kirk Herbstreit thinks, as he floated the idea of Nick Saban becoming a national commissioner for college football during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show. The former Ohio State QB pointed out that conference commissioners are incentivized to protect their own territory, not the sport as a whole, and that’s where Saban comes in. 

“My only hope is Nick Saban,” he said. “If you really know Saban, he has a college football twist. He cares about the players, he cares about the sport. Him being involved with Congress and the President. He’s got a lot of people’s ears, and I think he has good intentions. I’m hopeful that he’ll be able to help out.”

Kirk Herbstreit’s plea echoes a solution first proposed by Saban himself. The Alabama legend became a vocal advocate for centralized leadership since trading the sidelines for the broadcast booth.

“I think that we need to have a commissioner who’s kind of over all the conferences,” he said in December 2025. “As well as a competition committee who sort of defines the rules of how we’re going to play the game. Because that’s what we don’t have right now.”

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Nick Saban also talked about the lack of contracts relating to player and coach obligations. The Alabama coaching great called the current system “a little bit of anarchy” while pointing out that the CFP has distracted fans from deeper structural failures because the product is still compelling at the top.

Kirk Herbstreit, meanwhile, who’s been calling games since 1996, isn’t new to this conversation either. He’s watched scholarship limits, conference realignment, the four-team playoff, and now the 12-team era. Herbstreit has seen how quickly rule changes ripple and how slowly leadership responds. A national commissioner, backed by a real governing body, could finally bring order to the sport’s chaotic landscape.

Nick Saban, for his part, has been clear that he didn’t exactly campaign for the job. Last August, he told the Associated Press he didn’t want to be “in that briar patch” of being commissioner. But he also said he wants to help make it right. And Kirk Herbstreit is not alone in his choice. Last December, Nebraska head coach Matt Rhule endorsed Saban, arguing that the job requires someone willing to make unpopular calls. 

“Because he’s been in the trenches, he has experience, he has the vision,” he said on his House Rhules podcast. “And you also have to have someone who has the guts and the toughness to make hard decisions, because you’re not going to make everyone happy.”

Matt Rhule even invoked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell as the model. James Franklin, now the head coach at Virginia Tech, echoed that sentiment in December 2024 while still at Penn State. He called Nick Saban the “obvious choice” for the sport that needs to tame its uncontrolled chaos. 

Why college football needs a commissioner

More than 10,500 players across all divisions entered the portal ahead of the 2026 season, with 6,500 of them being D1 players. Seasons now run from late August to late January, stretching five months, and then there’s eligibility confusion that resulted in lawsuits, including Ole Miss’ QB Trinidad Chambliss. There’s also tampering as coaches try to lure recruits even after their enrollment. The biggest one as of late is Dabo Swinney’s allegations against the Rebels. 

This frustration is not limited to coaches, since figures like former NFL star Michael Irvin have also been publicly critical. At Super Bowl Radio Row, he criticized NIL’s impact on recruiting and questioned the CFP committee’s credibility. This sport is operating without a central authority, and that’s where everything is going wrong. 

Nick Saban embodies the rare figure with enough respect across divides to enforce real change. But some people may raise doubts about whether he can control power-hungry leaders who like things as they are. Does college football want real help more than keeping its old ways? The sport’s future depends on choosing change. Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.